REYNOSA, Mexico -- This country's tenuous security situation is falling apart. Reports from across Mexico paint a picture of a nation reeling back on its heels as murders and massacres flourish.

Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez, just across the U.S. border, lead the nation and continent in homicides with more than 2,200 and 1,000 respectively in 2018. The Cancun area, a popular destination for tourists, had more than 500 murders last year.

And the trend is not getting better. Recent massacres span from Veracruz to Guadalajara and across Tamaulipas, where Reynosa is a critical crossing point for U.S.-Mexico trucking business.

In the first quarter of 2019, there were 8,493 murders, according to the Executive Secretariat of the Public Security National System, a 9.6% rise on the same period in 2018.

Reynosa, Mexico, left, and the Hidalgo Port of Entry on the Mcallen-Hidalgo-Reynosa International Bridge across the Rio Grande river in the U.S. on Thursday March 24, 2016 in Hidalgo, Texas. Reynosa is not only a gateway for business between the U.S. and Mexico, it's also a dangerous city where drug cartels prey on migrants who are trying to enter the U.S. both legally and illegally.

(Nathan Lambrecht/Special Contributor)

Forensic personnel and police officers are seen outside a criminal hideout where eight people with signs of torture were found alive along with four dead ones, in Tlajomulco de Zuniga, Jalisco State, Mexico, on May 3, 2019. Mexican authorities freed 17 kidnapped people in two different cases in the western Mexican state of Jalisco, which has been hit by violence linked to organized crime. Along with the ones found in Tlajomulco, nine other people were also rescued alive from another safe house in Guadalajara.

(ULISES RUIZ/AFP/Getty Images)

Ministerial agents are seen outside a criminal hideout where eight people with signs of torture were found alive along with four dead ones, in Tlajomulco de Zuniga, Jalisco State, Mexico, on May 3, 2019.

(ULISES RUIZ/AFP/Getty Images)

Relatives of the slain mayor of Mixtla de Altamirano, Maricela Vallejo, embrace outside the Forensic Medical Service in Orizaba, state of Veracruz, Mexico, a day after she was killed. - Vallejo, her husband and their driver were killed by unknown men on a state highway on April 24.

(VICTORIA RAZO/AFP/Getty Images)

The rising violence has huge implications for the young presidency of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who was swept into office with a clear mandate: Just like his last two predecessors he won by promising to make Mexico safe again.

"Violence in Mexico is only getting worse," said Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, an expert on drug violence at George Mason University and author of Los Zetas Inc., a book about the paramilitary group that's long terrorized Mexico's Northwest region.

And it may mean migrants are in danger because a recent U.S. policy is sending some Central Americans seeking political asylum back to Mexico to await rulings in their cases. More migrants subject to that policy, known as Migration Protection Protocols, may face increasing danger as summer approaches, a period when homicides usually spike.

Over the weekend, at least three Hondurans were reportedly killed inside a house in Ciudad Juarez. Moreover, roadblocks in cities like Reynosa, across McAllen, are common as criminals extort and kidnap migrants.

"Further militarization and more vulnerable people are being subjected to extortion and recruitment and this is setting up for an explosive situation in cities like Reynosa," said Correa-Cabrera, referring to the growing number of Central American migrants.

Ieva Jusionyte, assistant professor at Harvard's Department of Anthropology and author of Threshold, said Mexico is "so saturated with weapons," the majority of them come from Texas-based stores, "that criminals have no problem finding" AK-47s and other weapons anywhere in Mexico.

Jusionyte, who said she is researching what American arms are doing to Mexican lives during the decades-old drug war, said official estimates show about 200,000 weapons, mostly from the U.S., enter Mexico annually.

"Some regions, especially in the north next to Texas, are in a tough situation," she said.

Six months into his term, approval ratings for López Obrador, known as AMLO, remain in the high 70s, but cracks are beginning to show, partially aggravated by Mexican's concerns about the continued violence.

On Sunday, thousands of people turned out on Mexico City's main thoroughfare, known as Reforma Avenue, to protest against the president, marking the major first anti-AMLO march.

"I think that, for now, there's still patience with the new government of López Obrador, as many voters view violence as problems inherited from the old administration," said Javier Garza, an independent journalist who specializes in reporting on drug violence.

People take part in the so-called "March of Silence" against Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's policies with signs reading "AMLO resign" in Mexico City, on May 5, 2019.

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People take part in the so-called "March of Silence" against Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's policies in Mexico City, on May 5, 2019..

(PEDRO PARDO/AFP/Getty Images)

Lopez Obrador remains very popular, but tensions are rising over crime and other issues.

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Residents of Minatitlan, Veracruz state, march on April 23, 2019, during a protest against the killing of 13 people after a group of unidentified gunmen opened fire on a party on April 19. The Secretariat of Public Safety said the gunmen arrived at a family reunion asking to see someone named "El Becky' -- the owner of a local bar -- before opening fire and killing 13 and injuring four others. Veracruz is plagued with organised crime and bloody gun battles frequently erupt between rival drug gangs.

(ANGEL HERNANDEZ/AFP/Getty Images)

The problem, Garza said, is the repeated promises that López Obrador makes, insisting he will reduce violence in six months, then moving the goal post.

"Eventually this will sound like rhetoric, and that's when the problem will really begin for him because he already doesn't sound like he has a long-term policy or strategy," said Garza.

Last year was considered the most violent in Mexico's modern history, with 33,341 murders, a new record. It was the greatest number since records began in 1997, according to an annual Justice in Mexico report, "Organized Crime and Violence In Mexico," released last week by researchers at the University of San Diego.

López Obrador has promised to take a different approach to restore security in the country. He said he's focused on crime prevention by launching new social programs, including scholarships, to provide opportunities for poor youths and keep them away from crime.

He's also created a new 80,000-member National Guard, comprised mostly of former military and national police, and made other changes in federal law enforcement, including a new autonomous federal prosecutor.

In doing so, López Obrador is setting up new institutions and that may be part of the bigger problem, said David Shirk, a crime expert and co-author of the Justice in Mexico Report.

"López Obrador has a plan, but part of the problem is that it's not the right plan," Shirk said. "The problem in Mexico is that every new administration for the last 30 years wants to start all over again, begin a new institution. There is no continuity."

Every six years - the length of a presidential term - new leaders come in and begin rebuilding from the ground up, Shirk said. He said he thinks López Obrador's team should focus on merit-based, professional performance criteria to award law enforcement officials who are doing good jobs.

The violence, according to the Justice in Mexico report, impacts Mexicans in different ways. In recent years, Mexican mayors were at least nine times more likely to be killed than the average citizen, while Mexican journalists were three times more likely to be murdered.

Last week, in the state of Oaxaca, radio reporter Telesforo Santiago Enriquez became the latest journalist victim. In late April, the mayor of Mixtla de Altamirano, Maricela Vallejo, became one of the most recent politicians to be assassinated when she was shot while driving on a highway. Her husband and driver also died.

Relatives and friends of the slain mayor of Mixtla de Altamirano, Maricela Vallejo, take part in her funeral on April 25, 2019, in Zongolica, state of Veracruz, Mexico.

(VICTORIA RAZO/AFP/Getty Images)

Police guard as relatives and friends of Nahuatzen Mayor, David Otilica, carry his coffin during his funeral in Nahuatzen, Michoacan State, Mexico on April 25, 2019. Otilica was kidnapped and murdered.

(ENRIQUE CASTRO/AFP/Getty Images)

Shirk said López Obrador should consider deploying police to Mexico's more than 260 communities, and laser in on areas where crime is rampant.

For example, only 5 municipalities account for 25% of the homicides in the country. And the top 10 most violent municipalities account for 33 % of homicides nationwide. They include cities like Tijuana in Baja California, Ciudad Juárez, Ciudad Victoria, Acapulco and Guanajuato.

"He's spreading his police force too thin, too quickly," Shirk said.

He applauded AMLO for focusing on programs to help the poor, but said the president needs to focus also on strengthening institutions via rule-of-law, especially as top cartels, who have long ruled Mexico with ironclad power, weaken and give rise to smaller, often deadlier organizations.

That's the case in states like Guanajuato, where violence has risen due to the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel, overseeing petroleum theft. In the state of Tamaulipas, stretching south of Texas from Laredo to the Gulf, remnants of the paramilitary group known as the Zetas are battling it out for control of key regions, including Laredo and Reynosa.

On a recent day in Reynosa, a cab driver who goes by the name of Gregorio Chavez was in constant communication via WhatsApp with other colleagues to check on "where the roadblocks are."

"Central American migrants represent a boom for business," Chavez said. "They represent dollars," he said, explaining that many are kidnapped and held until U.S. relatives or friends pay ransom.

But while Central Americans and other migrants are the target, "you don't want to get trapped in a roadblock because anything can happen."

Correction on May 7 at 11:51 a.m.: Corrected to reflect that 5 municipalities account for 25% of the homicides in Mexico, not 5% of municipalities.